An Emerald in the Rough - 12/1986 Dinan M5

[Jb325is]

Awesome find, should be a really cool car. I would go with Megasquirt because there is a huge knowledge base out there, lots of current support, and the Miller guy has just never come across as a guy I'd want to do business with, in my opinion. I also think, if you want to go with a more advanced ECU alternative (which would certainly cost more money) that you would only be adding to the value of the car at this point.

[ZekeTheSneak]

I don't know how you do it god damn lol. Congrats. Take your time, engine management is the hardest choice to make. That s38 would suck to have to rebuild so boost low or not at all until you have some miles on it.

[TFJR]

Great find!

[slammin.e28]

Aweeee fuk.

Going to keep it turbo'd or nah?

Such a cool car. Good on ya wanting to go back to black...Laguna looks terrible on e28s IMO.

[e30austin]

Thanks, all. Just glad the circumstances were what they were and I could bring it home with me.

Awesome story, I was giddy reading it :D I love a good old fashioned "barn find" like this! This car is definitely in the right hands. Austin, we all know you'll do this thing justice.

How much power did Dinan claim it made back then? Must have been a screamer in its day.

Aaron, Dinan claimed 450 WHP in 1988. The down side to this whole project is Dinan threw any of their information related to these old cars a long time ago. My initial intention was to set it up EXACTLY the way it came from the Dinan factory, but with the Turbotronic boxes being damaged, there's just no way to do it. With it having a brand new (never even ran) Garrett ball bearing charger, TiAl wastegate and BOV, there's no way the stock stuff can run those parts. On some sort of aftermarket engine management and the new pieces, I would bet that it will make closer to 550whp, but time will tell.

After having a few discussions with a couple different friends, who are well versed in the FI world (I have zero idea what I'm doing), there are two routes I can go with this project:

- Buy a refurbished 079 DME and get a Miller MAF and WAR chip and try to find someone to tune it. Won't be a 100% option, but would get the car running and driving damn good.

- Have a custom adapter built to run this engine on MS3, leave the stock distributor, gutted AFM, etc. Make it very clean and stealth looking, nobody would even know it's running MS, unless they popped off the DME cover. There are a few competent tuners in the area who could get it running well.

I am more inclined to go with the Miller MAF setup, but I know that the MS setup is well known by lots of folks and is fairly easy to tune, so I have a feeling this will be the route that I go.

We will see how long the turbo setup lasts on this car. At some point, I will most likely take it all off when it goes back to stock.

[IronJoe]

Awesome story, I was giddy reading it :D I love a good old fashioned "barn find" like this! This car is definitely in the right hands. Austin, we all know you'll do this thing justice.

How much power did Dinan claim it made back then? Must have been a screamer in its day.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

This is damn cool. Subbed for pics and progress

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Ooooooh you lucky bastard.

[2002jm]

nice job on the find

Looking forward to seeing this at 5erWest one of these years:)
Good luck with the project; will be looking forward to more details,
jm

[Dagamus(NM)]

Awesome. Sub'd.

[MR E30 325is]

Dreams do come true!

Holy hell I'm excited. What a find.

[bradnic]

you scooped a dinan turbo e28 m5 with a perfect interior.

you sick fuck.

this. yup. SUB'D. what an amazing story. very happy for you. post lotsa pics you bastard.

[rturbo 930]

I hope you guys who don't live in the rust belt really appreciate how good you have it when it comes to finds like this.

We just bought a 1984 533i that was parked in a garage for over 20 years... and it's a parts car.

This.

Older cars seem to be so much more abundant over there. Might be for the best though. God knows how many I'd have if I could actually find them here.

[BUDNUNTA]

how fast would that have been in its day

good find dude

do it justice

[reelizmpro]

Wow, what a nice pick up. Such a cool story behind the car as well. It was meant to be.